The Veg Blog

Charles Miller, over at The Fishbowl asks his readers a question:

If those kooky stem-cell researchers were to discover a way to grow human meat in a vat, such that it was never at any point a real, living human being…

Would you eat it?

Oddly, just last night I decided that if I ever get rich, I’m going to develop a line of soy-based human meat analogues. “Do no harm when you eat this arm!” Think of it… there would be a whole new classification of vegetarians: vegan cannibals.

Of course, the downside would be that you’d probably have to eat a real body part or two during the development of these new products to make sure you got the taste and texture down. At the very least, you’d need a friend that was a cannibal. And, really, having a cannibal for a friend can be a dangerous thing.

So tell me, Veg Blog readers, is there a market for Tofingers and Toe-fu?

Raw food diet: As a way of life, simply not so hot

This Chicago Tribune article takes a look at the raw food lifestyle. The author decides it’s not for her:

But raw, which is supposed to encourage a simple life and a return to nature, is just too complicated for its own good. It’s great in theory but has strayed seriously from its roots. Not only are pricey appliances like a juicer, dehydrator and blender helpful if you want to eat more than lettuce, but it’s also a labor- and time-intensive lifestyle that requires soaking and sprouting various foods and recognizing deadly herbs.

I think Charlie Trotter, author of Raw has it right:

“There’s nothing wrong with mixing a little raw and cooked food,” Trotter said during a cooking demonstration. “I just want great food. And by the way, I want to live to eat another day.”

Chickens injured by student prank (BugMeNot login)

Apparently a student left the chickens in a knapsack inside a locked car before the joke, leaving one of the animals close to death as a result of the excessive heat, police said.

*sigh*

Ever wonder what types of weird things dairy farmers and cattle ranchers buy to help them do their job?

Cow magnets.

And, no, these aren’t cute little magnets in the shape of a cow that say “Bessie” on them. These phallic devices are used to help prevent “Hardware Disease,” a common ailment that occurs when the cows ingest metal while feeding (from staples, bits of bailing wire, etc.). When Hardware Disease hits, the cows lose their appetite and stop making milk or gaining weight. So what do these cow magnets do?

“Cow magnets help prevent this disease by attracting stray metal from the folds and crevices of the rumen and reticulum.”

Yes, but how do they work?

According to one commenter: “[T]he magnets are administered orally… the magnet stays in the cow’s stomach, keeping the hardware in a (relatively) safe clump.”

Well, there you go, then.

(via)

I re-discovered The Post-Punk Kitchen site the other day. The PPK is a Brooklyn, NY-based vegan cooking show with a decidedly non-traditional approach. I had visited their site shortly before their first episode aired and went back again yesterday in search of some good dessert recipes and vegan baking tips. I was happy to see that the site has grown and the show has aired two episodes on public access television. In addition, they have a DVD available with both shows, whose purchase directly supports the airing of more episodes.

In any event, the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes were awesome. Very rich with a nice hint of orange. Next time around, I might even take one reviewer’s suggestion and add a little more Grand Marnier for a stronger orange flavor. One other modification I made to the recipe: I used 3/4 cup of sugar for the frosting because using only 1/2 cup resulted in a slightly too-buttery flavor. Give it a shot, though, and also try out the Chocolate Bomb Pudding Cake, specifically recommended to me by Isa, one of the site’s punktastic proprietors.

Even though I’ve cooked more in the last 3 1/2 years of my life than I did in the previous 25, I still pretty much stick to recipes. I try all sorts of recipes of varying degrees, but it’s rare that I really go out on my own and try something drastically different from what the book says. There’s even a rule in our house that the first time we make any recipe, we have to have all the ingredients on hand, no substitutes, so that way we know what it’s supposed to taste like before we start experimenting.

The other night, I started with a wicked Pineapple-Ginseng sauce recipe from Secrets from a Healthy Asian Kitchen. The recipe suggested using the sauce to top seafood or beef. Instead, I made the sauce (as directed, of course, since it was the first time we tried it) and then dropped in half a package of extra firm tofu I had chopped into cubes and let it marinate in the fridge while I cooked some brown rice.

When the rice was nearly finished, I decided to follow some advice I read in This Can’t Be Tofu! about the best way to infuse tofu with flavor. I added a little oil to a pan and fried the tofu chunks until they were golden brown. Then I poured some of the sauce on top of them and cooked them until the sauce started to break down. I topped the rice with the tofu chunks and then poured on the remaining sauce from the pan and some from the original marinade. It was simply excellent… the sauce gave the rice a nice, rich creaminess and the tofu chunks were nicely coated and somewhat infused with the pineapple-ginseng flavor. Really good stuff. And it received the stamp of approval from the wife. We added this to “the restaurant list,” a list of recipes I’ll serve when I open up my fantasy restaurant in the future.

I’m going to formalize the recipe and post it soon, but the point of this story is that sometimes the best recipes are the loose adaptations and creative re-working from unexpected places.

While I’m quite familiar with Tofutti’s soy ice cream products and their amazing Better Than Cream Cheese line, I came across a new item (to me) in the store the other that really excited me: soft batch Tofutti non-dairy chocolate chip cookies! I grabbed a box thinking, “Excellent, soft batch vegan cookies!” And, man, do they taste good.

The problem: they have eggs in them. Huh. I thought all of Tofutti’s products were vegan, but apparently not… just dairy free. Bummer. Guess you have to read the labels even on products from companies you trust.